Category Archives: Careerist

Apr 28 Comments comments
Blogger, Careerist, Learner

How to Start a Blog Without Making the Mistakes I Did

Hi! Welcome to Twenty Set. Here you will find 4-5 insightful new articles each week about personal and professional development. I write candidly from personal experience.

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If you haven’t heard yet, I launched my new website called the Resourceful Marketer on Sunday night. I wish this were a happy post to tell you how excited I am. I mean, I am excited, sort of. But I’m also very tired and very annoyed, because I did not want to start another blog when this one is finally seeing some success.

So here is the convoluted version of why I started my new blog, in the form of mistakes I made when starting this one:

I highlighted my age. Wait. I harped on it.

If you want to harp on your age and inexperience, it doesn’t get any better than declaring yourself a twentysomething or Gen Y blogger. I needn’t remind anyone that there is very real discrimination against young people in the workplace. It’s fine to pigeonhole yourself as “young and bright” when you first enter the workforce; but 3-5 years in, you’ll be begging for people to stop looking at you as “one of those millennials” and start taking you seriously.

Chuck Westbrook says it best: “Rather than trying to be the Penelope Trunk of Gen Y or the Gary Vaynerchuk of the next generation, the real accomplishment is to start showing up on ‘Best Bloggers’ lists, without generational qualifications.”

I agree. Growing into your profession means gaining respect as peers. Which is nearly impossible to do if you classify yourself as a Gen Y blogger.

I thought blogging was just a hobby.

Blogging is a wonderful hobby, don’t get me wrong. But look. When you build a blog of nearly 1,000 subscribers, you don’t have a hobby anymore. You have something that you should take more seriously, because you might be able to take it further.

When you first start a blog, you have no idea how popular you might get, so you should plan ahead 5 years just in case. Okay. Don’t really plan that far, but at least consider where you might be 5 years from now. Because now that I have a moderately successful blog, I can’t do anything with it because I messed up when I chose my focus on Gen Y personal development, which morphed into just personal with a dash of Gen Y. Which brings me to my next point.

I wrote about twentysomething careers instead of my career interests.

First, the Gen Y train has left the station. The market for more bloggers on this topic is small, the B2B business is going to already-established Gen Y companies, and even the bloggers who started the Gen Y train are struggling to make money from it. So please do not start a blog about twentysomethings in the workplace, or any other place. It’s done.

Second, I think twentysomethings get very mixed up about blogging being good for your career. It is, but mostly when you write about topics that are relevant to your field. (You know, establishing yourself as an “expert” in your industry, and all that.)

Sure you can learn a lot about yourself and grow as a person, personal development, yada yada, from any blog you start. But if you want to take a long-term view, you shouldn’t write about the ins and outs of your actual career unless you want to be a career coach or human resources professional.

I didn’t blog on my personal domain.

I am so thankful I bought http://monicaobrien.com when I did. Because it wasn’t available one week, and then it was the next and I snatched it. And now I’m using it to write about marketing, because the domain “Twenty Set” just doesn’t make sense for that topic, and I want to be fair to my original subscribers here.

But there’s more. If you want people to know you, no matter what you write about or what your career is, you should be blogging at yourname.com. On blogs, people buy you more than your topic. And besides, it’s likely that as a twentysomething you don’t know what you want to do and will change careers often, and the one thing that is fairly constant is your name.

I have two blogs! Don’t have two blogs. Just don’t.

I will try to keep up with Twenty Set and grow Resourceful Marketer. But to be realistic, it is very difficult to grow even one blog to 1,000 subscribers, and trying to manage two blogs will probably be a nightmare.

Plan ahead so you don’t ever need two blogs! There are a million problems that come with it. Aside from having double the work, you have the trouble of building a following on two separate domains, from subscribers, to links, to content, to comments, to traffic. The thought of starting a second blog made me so crazy that I put it off for 5 months, hoping to find another solution. I kicked myself when I realized that I would be so far by now if I’d been building my second blog for the last 5 months instead of going nuts.

I hope you won’t make the mistakes I made. Thanks to everyone for supporting Twenty Set thus far, and a special thanks to those who have helped me launch the Resourceful Marketer (I am especially happy to finally have something to put on my business cards).

As you may have guessed, Twenty Set will officially become my personal blog, if it hasn’t already. The writing style and content of this blog will stay the same, so keep reading and check out Resourceful Marketer if you ever want more. I hope the topics I cover on Resourceful Marketer will peak the interest of some of my longtime supporters of this blog too!

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Apr 24 Comments comments
Careerist, Goal-Setter, Learner

Cut through the bad advice with these tips

I am good at giving advice. This is not to say I’m good at giving good advice. Honestly, I’m just good at giving advice I like.

Jamie Varon recently wrote a post about reading bad advice in the blogosphere that inspired me to elaborate on my thoughts about advice-giving.

The hard thing about getting advice is, as humans, we have a tendency to ignore and discredit advice we don’t like, while heavily weighing advice we do like. The dangers of this approach are that we still don’t know what to do and end up just doing what we want, which may not always be the best decision.

Here’s a checklist I go through whenever I need to disseminate what is good advice and what is BS.

Has the adviser done this before?

Experience is king. The best advice givers write and speak about things they know. Trust the person who has experienced something similar to your problem or has achieved a goal you are aiming for.

How well does the adviser know me?

Blanket advice is rarely useful to understand situational problems. The best advice is tailored to your specific situation and who you are as a person. Weigh advice given by someone who asks you questions more heavily.

What are the adviser’s motivations?

Beware of the tendency of humans to give advice that benefits them. Everyone does it. If you are working with a career coach, remember they are trying to sell you something in the end. If you are working with your boss, remember he wants to advance his own career too.

How much can I trust this adviser?

Even if someone has experience and seemingly good intentions, if he has a questionable character, I still might not take his advice. Look at the way this person has handled situations in the past. Are this person’s techniques consistent with your own values?

What else is important to cutting through bad advice? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

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Apr 22 Comments comments
Careerist, Socialite

How to Find a Job With No Experience in a Recession

I’m going to start answering reader questions on my blog. If you have a question you can submit via twitter (@monicaobrien) or email me m@twentyset.com.

This one comes from @davidgallant :

“I am very interested to hear what you have to say about college grads finding their first job.”

Okay. So this isn’t really a question, but it sort of is, so I’m going to answer it anyway.

When I graduated from college, I went straight to Caterpillar, a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. It was an awesome experience for a first job and I learned so much about working in corporate and I would recommend it to anyone; but my guess is that many college grads are not going to get that opportunity because most large companies have hiring freezes right now.

The reality for the Class of 2009 is if you don’t have a job lined up yet, it will be very difficult to get one before graduation. I spoke to my sister-in-law who was Class of 2008 over Easter and she said that most of her friends were still having trouble getting jobs a year later, especially if they didn’t have very specific career degrees, like a business degree or a software engineering degree. This is probably even more true for current graduating seniors.

There is not much you can do to change your degree at this point. So here’s my advice:

1. Create your own internship

My friend Nisha Chittal, a political science major, did this. She spoke to some contacts she met on a trip to Cambodia and she is now going to spend 4-5 months after graduation helping start a business there.

You may ask how to get an internship, and the answer is to first figure out something you might like to do. (This is probably the hardest part.) Try to come up with an industry, a target company list within that industry, and a function within each company (like marketing, or sales). Once you have that, start contacting these companies and explain to them how you can add value to their operation.

You may have to offer your work for free. Yes, it sucks. But it is better than spending all summer doing nothing plus a job search. Now you can be gaining valuable work experience while you do a job search.

2. Be willing to move anywhere

There are much fewer jobs in a recession, so in order to find one that’s a good fit for you you must cast your net wide. That means you have to be willing to relocate.

You can take an opportunity somewhere without having to commit too heavily to the location. Most of Generation Y leaves their first job within 2 years of starting. So if you take a job in a crappy place know that it’s not going to last forever, and think of it as an investment in your career.

3. Take your part-time college job full time

Getting a job in a recession is hard for generalists, which is what all entry-level workers are. Every position that’s open is looking for the perfect fit, from executive positions all the way down to the waitressing level.

Yes, waitressing. Right now, you cannot get a waitressing job without having recent years of waitressing experience.

Wait. That’s perfect for college students though. So if you can, take your job as a sales associate, or a bartender full-time to pay the bills while you search for a real job.

4. Do project work

There is a talent agency headquartered in Chicago that I am in love with, because it understands what twentysomethings want, and it is legitimate. It’s called Brill Street. The idea is that you join Brill Street and they find project work for you in your areas of interest at large and mid-sized companies.

And they are looking for social media and tech-savvy types. Like you probably.

It is a contract-to-hire agency that essentially let’s you test drive different jobs and different companies until you find one you like. Perfect for Gen Y. And the company is open to college juniors and seniors as well, so if you are looking for part-time work or want to recession-proof your future, now would be the time to start.

What do you think college grads of 2009 should do on the job-front? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

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Apr 14 Comments comments
Careerist, Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is not that risky, even in a recession

As the recession looms, many people are clinging to their jobs like a life raft in a hurricane. Plans to start a new business or grow a business are put off in favor of playing it safe.

I disagree with this approach, because I believe an entrepreneurial mindset can a good thing in a recession, and actually bolster careers. Here are five reasons why:

Job security does not exist, even in growth periods

As technology innovations increase productivity, many jobs have become obsolete or automated. Since the 1980’s, goods-producing jobs have shifted to service-providing jobs, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts this trend will continue through 2016. Thus, workers will likely change careers into service-related fields, many of which don’t currently exist.

Because of this phenomenon, today’s worker does not have the luxury of simply going to work and collecting a paycheck anymore; professionals must constantly network and learn new skills because changing jobs regularly is imminent. Those who don’t will find themselves unemployed.

While it is obvious from unemployment statistics that job placement is at an all-time low these days, let’s be clear. True job security has been a myth for awhile now, even before this messy recession took place. So why wait for the economy to get better before taking the plunge? Why let recession fears hold you back from entrepreneurship?

Recessions create opportunities for necessity-based entrepreneurship

Research shows that no matter what the economy looks like, entrepreneurship as a job category holds steady. This is because in good times entrepreneurs create opportunity-based businesses due to excess of cash flow, and in bad times entrepreneurs create necessity-based businesses due to lack of cash flow.

So do not think that just because companies are downsizing there is no room for new businesses. The opposite is true; the country needs small businesses because the larger ones have stopped innovating and fulfilling niche needs in order to cut costs. Furthermore, during a recession, consumers focus spending on need-based products, are less willing to pay brand-name prices, and are always looking for the more frugal alternative. All of these spaces are opportunities for entrepreneurs to create need-based solutions.

Lay-offs do not mean there is less work to

As companies lay people off, it is usually not because the work those employees were doing has disappeared. In fact, companies turn that work into project-based work which gets outsourced at a higher price than if a full-time employee were to do it. Why? Because companies can still save money on the project by not paying out 401k and health benefits.

Savvy professionals know that even in a recession, they can get work in their field as a freelancer or consultant as long as they are willing adopt an entrepreneurial spirit. The internet has lowered entry-barriers for starting and marketing a freelance or consulting venture. Today, you can set up a basic website, print some business cards, and hit the streets to find high-paying project-based work.

Entrepreneurship fills in gaps on your resume, making you more marketable

Even if your end goal is to get another job, there is nothing that says entrepreneurship and job-hunting are mutually exclusive. This means that if you get laid off from work, the best thing to do is immediately start a company so you can spend your unemployed time wisely.

It took me some time to figure this out when I quit my job back in October 2008, just before the stock market crashed. The plan had been to take a well-deserved break for 2 months before starting a short job-hunt in January. Of course, as short turned to longer, I realized my traditional job options were pretty despairing.

I wanted to reclaim my power over my career, so I decided to do some online marketing consulting work on the side while waiting for job offers, which I eventually received. After turning down several unappealing job offers though, I realized that I already had a job – my marketing consulting business!

You should never have gaps in your resume, because you can always create work for yourself as an entrepreneur. Now, when I meet with CEOs of prominent Chicago businesses, they are impressed with my resume because I can bring something to the table, even in the face of adversity.

Entrepreneurship teaches you to be a better networker

It is no secret that the people with the most security are also the best networkers. This is because 90% of jobs are not advertised to the public, which means that the professionals who know the most people get first dibs on the least competitive jobs. Less competition combined with personal connections makes for a short job-hunt.

It is also no secret that entrepreneurs have large networks out of necessity. Entrepreneurs have a knack for building strategic alliances and using quid pro quo to come up with scrappy, workable solutions when faced with misfortune. As such, the real learning that comes out of entrepreneurship is not actually how to run a business; it’s how to build a network that helps you reach your goals.

So if your long-term goal is security, entrepreneurship is actually a good career route to consider. The fastest way to get a job is to become a great networker. And the fastest way to become a great networker is to become an entrepreneur.

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Apr 07 Comments comments
Activist, Blogger, Careerist, Entrepreneur, Goal-Setter, Socialite

6 Personal Branding Lessons I Learned from Observing Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is kind of a big deal these days – he has a book Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success that just came out (today! go get it), tons of press publicity, his award-winning blog, and his reputation as the #1 personal branding expert. But while Dan’s articles can teach us a lot about how to use social media to brand yourself, I actually learn more about personal branding just from watching Dan work his magic.

Here are some of things I’ve learned:

Dan gives a lot of himself

As one of the Personal Branding Blog writers, I get the opportunity to talk to Dan on a fairly regular basis about everything he’s doing in his career. What I’ve found is he has a huge heart and gives so much of himself to everyone he possibly can. He speaks at local colleges and organizations, he writes articles all the time, he shares interesting information through his twitter account, he does press interviews, he answers questions via email, he writes LinkedIn recommendations for everyone he knows… the list goes on and on.

I recently wrote a post about How to be Popular on Social Media, and Dan is the epitome of one of the points – to make the conversation about your followers, not yourself. It’s no surprise that Dan has a great following, because he truly gives more than he ever asks.

Dan keeps track of his online brand

Dan uses every outlet he has to promote good content of others, but he never misses a chance for self-promotion. I think this is a great thing, because nobody is going to toot your horn for you. Promoting your own accomplishments gives you credibility among your followers and sets an example for what people like you can accomplish.

In Dan’s case, he always shares every article that is written about him, no matter how large or small the publication. The situation is win-win – Dan gets publicity and the publication gets traffic, an incentive that encourages other publications to interview Dan.

Dan writes a ton of articles for various publications

Dan is known as the personal branding expert, but he knows that personal branding is not a vacuum. That’s why Dan applies his subject (personal branding) to broader subjects so he can write on a variety of topics.

Dan also knows that in order to grow a reputation, you cannot invest too much time into one community. He knows that every networking connection is a series of transactions rather than an intense, ongoing conversation. Instead of becoming just another member in several communities, Dan builds his own community around his work. He accomplishes this by gaining more reach - tapping into other communities through his writing, and bringing a portion of those communities back to his own blog.

Dan takes his network with him

The great thing about Dan is he uses his own status to elevate others in his network with him. He is constantly sharing press and speaking opportunities with the people who support him and his career.

For example, the week before Dan launched his book Me 2.0, he emailed the entire Personal Branding Blog team to thank us for making his book launch so successful. In other words, he let us know we were contributors to the Me 2.0 launch and could share in its success. I know that as Dan’s career skyrockets, he will bring his network with him.

Dan wrote a book to move his personal brand forward

I recently wrote that blogging to demonstrate “expert” credentials was sooo 2007. That’s not really fair, because Dan became a personal branding expert largely due to branding himself through his blog.

Not that Dan’s blog is his biggest accomplishment – not nearly. He simply used it as a stepping stone to make an even bigger career jump – writing his book.

While Dan did not get article in Business Week and the New York Times through his blog, he did get them because he had a book deal. So if you really want to become an expert, write a blog about a particular subject, and use your blog to sell a book.

But first you have to find a great hook that sells. And “personal branding expert” is already taken, unfortunately.

Dan is a Google Reader rockstar

I recently dusted off my Google Reader, and as I started using it, I was shocked to discover that Dan Schawbel shares, like, 50 articles a day. How the heck does he read that much, I thought?

But then I observed Dan’s shared items, and found a lot of truly great content. And I realized quickly it’s all in the title – you can skim article titles in Google reader and tell what’s going to be interesting and relevant to you and what’s not.

Now, I have over 200 feeds in my Google Reader. I give basically anyone who communicates with me in any way a chance, whether through commenting or sending me a message on Twitter. I add feeds to my reader without fear, because I can scan 500 posts, pick out and read the best 10 (based on titles), and share the most relevant 5 on Twitter and my blog in about 10 minutes.

I know this has to be how Dan Schawbel finds great content to share with his following, and has built a loyal fan base that makes him the personal branding expert he is today. And I love reading Dan Schawbel’s shared items because they are usually intelligent, insightful picks. And I think if I can share good picks with people, I can brand myself as someone in the know too.

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PS. I highly recommend Dan Schawbel’s book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, which I have already read and found very impressive.

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Apr 05 Comments comments
Careerist, Entrepreneur, Socialite, Woman

Why the New Girls’ Club Doesn’t Work

Have you heard of the Old Boys’ Club? In the twentieth century, this was a group of privileged men vying for management positions. In the post-feminist age, this is a group of high-performing, stellar networkers in the boardrooms and executive suites.

Yes, the Old Boys’ Club is still alive and well; the difference is that women are now allowed to join, if they can demonstrate leadership and toe the fine line between feminism and masculinity.

And yet, instead of joining the club, women have created their own clubs – New Girls’ Clubs – which are all-female professional groups trying to use the power of numbers to compensate for gender disparity in the workplace. For the most part, these clubs don’t work. Here’s why:

Joining ‘the Sisterhood’

New Girls’ Clubs typically host overly girly networking events. I know, because I am a board member of a new girls’ business club. Here is what our event calendar looks like:

We’ll put on a spa event instead of a sports event. We’ll do a wine tasting instead of a bar crawl. We’ll host yoga classes instead of going golfing.

Realistically, none of these events would ever be settings for a gender-neutral, business networking event. So while we women think we’re learning how to build a professional network, we are actually just engaging in a sorority-like slumber party slash gossip-fest that reinforces the girly habits that don’t get us ahead in the workplace.

Shorting Your Network

On average, women speak 20,000 words per day while men only speak 7,000. Yet women do not have as large of networks as men, even though they talk more. Where women are conversational, men are transactional. Men are more likely to use who they know to open doors, and they are more likely to ask for help despite not having helped someone previously.

If you want a larger network, you must not only network with men, but become a more transactional networker; both of which you won’t find at a New Girls’ Club.

Starting a Cat Fight

There are so many things to say here. First, I hate hate hate that when men get into a fight it’s a fist fight, but when women get into a fight it’s a cat fight. Second, cat fighting usually comes with sexual connotation, as if the two women might start making out after ripping handfuls of each other’s hair.

Third, and most important, women are taught at an early age to be jealous of other women because we base our own self-image on what other women have that we don’t. Career columnist Penelope Trunk says, “Everyone is competitive, but there are more problems between two women than between two men or between a man and a woman.” So chances are women are not always your best allies in the workplace. Why limit your networking to just women in the New Girls’ Club?

Signaling a Pay Cut

Research shows that female-dominated fields have lower average salaries than fields where the ratio of men to women is equal or higher. In fact, as a profession goes from male-dominated to female-dominated, the worth of the profession actually drops. This phenomenon is so prominent that it shows up everywhere, from business to college basketball.

This begs the question: why would we purposely aggregate ourselves into female-dominated groups? In any business, factions of females send the wrong signal to their male-counterparts: that the girls can’t eat at the big boys table, so they had to form their own.

And really, if you want to make more money as a woman, you should be in a male-dominated field. It forces you to let go of the New Girls’ Club crutch because there are so many men that all-female networking skills become irrelevant. Which means the New Girls’ Club doesn’t work – it actually holds women back in the end.

Further reading: The G-20 is Complete BS for Women

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Mar 11 Comments comments
Blogger, Careerist, Entrepreneur, Socialite

4 Rules of Communication for Internet and New Media Types

Since so many people are working from home these days, it’s important to discuss expectations regarding business and personal communication for internet and new media types. Here are four rules I try to live by: I’d love to hear what other rules you use to communicate via the web!

State a preferred method of communication

Most people don’t write out the way they use new media to communicate, but what I’ve noticed is that a general set of rules emerges on its own for each individual. For example, I don’t read Twitter direct messages unless it comes from someone I know personally. I don’t respond to Facebook messages unless they come from my sorority sisters. I don’t use Skype or gTalk for important information, like accounts or passwords.

It is likely that you’re rules are not the same, because it’s all about preference. With all the different ways to communicate, professionals in new media have to be clear about how to reach them for business so that they can actually manage their business efficiently. So put a line in your email signature, or make your preferred method clear on your voicemail or business card.

My preferred method for all initial communications is email. Readers of this blog can best contact me at m@twentyset(dot)com.

Have patience

I am constantly asking my husband if he saw such-and-such email, and he tells me things like, “The last time I checked my email was at lunch.” When it’s 5pm. And then he goes on about how I live too much in a virtual world, and I offer to buy him an iPhone to replace his crappy Sony Erickson flip that he refuses to upgrade, and we laugh about how we are possibly so happily married.

If my husband and I are on different pages, just imagine how crazy business communication is in this ever-changing world of social media. The reality is that people have very different perceptions of how urgent matters are, and they filter and prioritize in part by the medium through which they receive the communication. But everyone has different ideas about the rules, and the internet just perpetuates the likelihood that two people’s perceptions won’t match up.

So get real and have patience when you send out a message. There is no 48 hour rule on email. There is no right way to use Twitter. And anyway, if you are observing the person’s preferred method of communication, you will not need to worry so much about having patience.

Understand why people aren’t replying to you

I will be the first to admit that I don’t reply to every single email. I try, but some slip through the cracks. And you can say that I have bad time management or I’m disorganized or whatever, but I seriously doubt most people at my level of connectivity or above genuinely answer every piece of communication they receive in a timely manner.

There are only a couple reasons why I don’t reply –

You didn’t ask for a reply – Sometimes people send me beautiful, long emails about how much they love my blog, or about what their company does, or about a new project they started. Then they wonder why I didn’t respond, and it’s usually because there was no call to action. So if you want me to do more than read your email and appreciate the wisdom you’ve imparted on me, ask a question at the end, or tell me what you want to come from the exchange; otherwise I usually mark it as “FYI” and move on.

I forgot – Sometimes I genuinely want to help you, but it takes awhile and I don’t have time right then; so I mark your request as “come back to later.” Then later never comes and there is no trigger to remind me. It doesn’t hurt to send a few follow up emails after a couple days to ask about the first email. But be warned – if you don’t get a reply to the third email, don’t send a fourth.

You’ve made it hard for me to help you – Sometimes my mom calls me just to chat, but she wants to talk for an hour. Sometimes people want me to write a blog post about them, but don’t send all the information I need; or worse, send me a generic press release. Look, the world moves a lot faster these days. If you lessen the time it takes me to help you, I am more likely to do so.

I reply way more than most people I know – so I think these reasons are probably why a lot of people don’t reply. Start here if you are not getting responses.

Sometimes you have to pay to play

Another reason you may not be getting a response is because you want too much for what you’re offering, and the relationship isn’t mutually beneficial.

For example, someone asked me the other day, “You can be an elusive chick. What’s the best way to reach you?”

What he really meant was “What’s the best way to reach you immediately, whenever I want?”

Look, I can’t be someone’s b*tch, and I can’t give all my knowledge away for free. So I replied, “The best way to reach me is to pay me!” (PS. If you read this blog this story is not about you, so please don’t email me to confront me.)

Harsh, maybe – but in this day and age, it is just too easy to reach out to someone for a favor. Thanks to the popularity of my blog, strangers and weak ties constantly call me, chat me through GTalk, Twitter and Facebook message me, etc. for advice or help, which gets overwhelming after awhile.

Don’t get me wrong – I love hearing from readers and companies trying to use social media. That’s why I started this blog to begin with, so don’t be shy about sending me messages. But understand that I only have a limited amount of time to help people who ask for it, and blog popularity is not scalable unless you take the Tim Ferriss route.

If you really want a direct line to someone, consider putting them on retainer with your company. I answer client calls immediately, at any time of the day – but it’s completely unrealistic for me to give non-payers the same treatment.

What are your thoughts on communicating via the web?

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